Introduction

Lactophenol Blue is one of the reagents most commonly used as a part of standard methods of microscopic fungi analysis. It is used for preparing semipermanent and permanent microscopic sections that have the fungus cytoplasm stained, creating a bright blue background. That enables detecting hyphal cell wall and other fungal structures that are stained dark blue. The solution consists of four components: phenol (fungicide that causes cellular protein precipitation and inactivation of enzyme systems), lactic acid (acts as a clearing medium), Aniline Blue dye (stains hyalins of fungal structures and in turn making them visible) and glycerol (enables semipermanent state of the section and its analysis 18-24 hours after preparation). Because of the components’ properties, BioGnost’s Lactophenol Blue solution is at the same time a mounting medium and a staining reagent, enabling practical, fast and efficient sample analysis.